At least six people have been killed in bear attacks in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia in a month, prosecutors said Wednesday.
An official in the neighboring Khakassia region said bears had put one forest town “under siege,” according to a report from CBS News. Investigators opened a criminal negligence inquiry and accused local officials of failing to control the bear population.
The Investigative Committee for the Krasnoyarsk and Khakassia regions said authorities did not do enough to keep predators out of places where people live despite repeated warnings.
Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry said the country’s brown bear population has more than doubled since 1990, from about 130,000 to nearly 308,000 in 2026.
The ministry said bear attacks nationwide still run about 20 to 30 per year. Local officials and Russian media have described a sharper spike in the Siberian taiga this season.
The Moscow Times, tallying fatal cases, said at least 14 people have been killed in bear attacks across Russia since the start of the year. In Krasnoyarsk, local media said the bodies of two people were found mauled in a forest near the remote town of Podtyosovo earlier this month.
On Sept. 6, a 40-year-old factory worker was killed while walking through a forest in the Krasnoyarsk Krai region. Just days later, investigators confirmed that a 39-year-old logger guarding heavy machinery was also mauled to death by a bear early Wednesday morning.
Separately, The Moscow Times reported that a single brown bear killed two men foraging for wild berries in the neighboring Irkutsk region along the Lena River.
Police said the attack happened Sept. 16 in a remote forest about 2,600 miles east of Moscow. The victims were 55 and 65. A third person escaped and reported it.
Officers and hunters later found the bodies.
Officials said the bear appeared again, acted aggressively, and fled after they opened fire. Search teams were still trying to track it. Dmitry Buchenik, deputy head of Khakassia, said Wednesday that the town of Abaza, home to about 10,000 people, was surrounded by bears “on all sides.”
“It was an alarming night in Abaza. The taiga town is effectively under siege by bears,” he said.
Buchenik said some animals were driven off and three were killed, including one he described as huge. CBS News reported that unverified social media videos circulated of a bear swimming in a river near the town and of three bears crossing a road in front of cars. Those clips have not been independently confirmed.
Russia’s emergency ministry said bears flee in most encounters with people. Authorities have said they killed hundreds of aggressive bears across the country since the spring of this year. Several Siberian regions have restricted forest gatherings, night movement, or mass events after sightings near towns.
CBS News posted the Krasnoyarsk death toll and the Abaza warning as the story spread internationally.
At least six people have been killed in bear attacks in Russia’s vast Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk in a month, prosecutors said Wednesday, as an official in a neighboring region reported bears had put one town “under siege.” https://t.co/0BFpZqw8BQ
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 23, 2026
Residents of Abaza said the bears did not stay on the town’s outskirts.
Mayor Valentina Filimonova said people had to drive bears away overnight from the city bridge, the gardens of Abaza-Zarechnaya, and the Cheryomushki dacha settlement. One knocked down a fence as it fled. About two dozen hunters were put on around-the-clock patrols, and officials said more than 40 bears had already been shot in and around Abaza this season.
Wildlife managers and local media have pointed to a weak berry and nut crop in the taiga as one reason brown bears are ranging closer to roads, yards, and logging camps. In Krasnoyarsk’s Yenisei district, authorities said dozens of animals had been killed in September alone after daily sightings near villages such as Potapovo. Residents were told to stay out of the forest after dark and to keep dogs and livestock locked up.
The Investigative Committee said the negligence case is being brought under the Criminal Code provision covering official inaction that results in the deaths of two or more people.
Investigators named regional forestry and wildlife officials among those who allegedly ignored repeated reports of predators entering settled areas. Prosecutors said they are supervising the inquiry.
Khakassia officials said they were preparing a special legal regime that would let them restrict access to high-risk stretches of forest and limit traffic on some roads.
In nearby Divnogorsk, special units have been using drones and thermal imagery technology to track animals after dark. Authorities continue to argue that most encounters still end with the bear running off, but the cluster of deaths in Krasnoyarsk and the nights of sightings in Abaza have made that reassurance harder for residents to accept.
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